New research is lending insight into why we want stuff that we don't need. It also explains why some people are what are called tightwads, while other people are spendthrifts. This site is about buying and selling. About why we buy, how designers and marketers influence what we buy, and how individuals are using market ideas, tricks, and tools to market themselves.

New brain science suggests there's a biological basis for the way each of us shops. It appears that people feel pleasure when they shop and pain when they pay.

While biology may have some role, there are many people working hard to tempt us into buying more. An invisible army of designers is fretting over how you like the lighting, the music, the color palette, even the smell of their stores.

Teenagers are among the most lucrative target markets for companies, but they've always been a target market for each other. Today, there's an arsenal of new tools they can use to say, "check me out."

This program is part of Consumed, special coverage of the consumer economy by American Public Media. It was made possible in part by a grant from the Kendeda Sustainability Fund of the Tides Foundation. Major funding for American RadioWorks comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.